An open letter of congratulation and gratitude to all at Gott 2 Tour tour bus company in Cape Town

Hello all at Gott 2 Tour tour bus company in Cape Town,

You don’t know me, and I haven’t “Gott 2 Tour” (LOL!), but I was fortunate enough to witness a selfless act of humanity by one of the drivers of your 16-seat minibus tour vehicles yesterday evening. In the world today, there are far too few selfless acts of humanity and even fewer open letters of congratulation and gratitude recognising these selfless acts of humanity. Perhaps this is why society is falling apart around us. Or perhaps not. Either way, I don’t feel that it could do any harm for me to write you an open letter of congratulation and gratitude recognising the selfless act of humanity that I witnessed last night.

Picture the scene, if you will, on the M5 Southbound carriageway at around 5:15pm. Mmm… messy.
Somehow – bewilderingly – the traffic seems worse than usual. I realise that this doesn’t seem possible, since the upgrade to Koeberg Interchange effectively destroyed any hope of reasonable traffic flow from the N1 south, but believe me, as a regular driver of this route, things were slower than I was used to; a sure sign of some sort of incident up ahead.

Just north of Berkley, alongside the three lanes of near stationary traffic, a tow truck raced past in the yellow lane on the left hand side of the carriageway. One could see the sudden realisation sweep across the rows frustrated drivers as they suddenly realised that there must be an accident on the road ahead.
No relief from the queues, sure, but at least some reason behind the excessive delay and at least some help was on the way to clear the road and get the traffic moving again.

But you know, much like the proverbial London buses, tow trucks never come one at a time. This is actually quite a good thing, because quite often, there is more than one vehicle involved in an accident and all of the damaged parties have to be removed from the carriageway before the horrible congestion can begin to be addressed. And indeed, true to form, along came another tow truck, its shiny black paintwork gleaming in the evening sunshine.

Now, it should be noted that, technically, driving in the yellow lane isn’t actually allowed. I know this, the traffic police know this, the tow truck drivers know this. But in these cases, where everything else is like a parking lot, the cops are willing to overlook this minor transgression in order to get the tow truck to the scene of the accident, get the road cleared and get the literally hundreds of cars stuck behind the crash, moving again. But the law is the law. And those tow truck drivers were breaking it. We know that everyone hates tow trucks: they’re second only to the minibus taxis and way, way ahead of Golden Arrow buses who occupy third place when it comes to inciting extremes of hypertension amongst the populous of Cape Town.

Naughty tow truck drivers. Naughty.

Gott 2 Tour employees reading this should have no fear, however. I know that the driver of your (empty) white minibus – registration GOTT 3 WP – was aware of this naughtiness as well, because his inner superhero kicked in and he swerved across the inside lane and got his wheels across the yellow line to quickly and effectively block the tow truck. In some sort of twisted analogy for Apartheid, the fat, white bus prevented the sleek, black tow truck from going about his business.

Ha! That’ll show him that we won’t stand for his flagrant disregard for the laws of this country! Yeah, he’s going nowhere now, certainly not past all these irritated drivers and to the scene of the accident up ahead where he will hopefully be able to assist with getting the traffic flow going again and get these hundred of people safely and timeously back to their respective families.
And who cares if I am technically breaking the law by driving at 2kph partially in the yellow lane, because I’m stopping the tow truck driver from driving in the yellow lane, because that’s breaking the law.

So weird though, because there was so little recognition of his selfless act of humanity from the other motorists around him. It was almost as if they were thinking, “Dude, don’t be a twat. That tow truck is going to remove the blockage ahead and get me home in time to see my kids before they go to bed”.
Almost exactly like that, it was.

There was a sort of slow motion stand-off going on over to my left. For second after second, Mr Gott et al, your driver used your tour bus (and effectively, your livelihood) as a rolling barricade to prevent the – now understandably irritated – tow truck driver from getting past in the yellow lane. Well done, tour bus driver! You’ve made a stand for the common man, facing up bravely to the tyranny of the tow truck fraternity and merely inconveniencing everyone else on the entire road as a slightly unfortunate by-product.

Eventually though, your driver realised that he couldn’t keep this courageous behaviour up all the way home, as the margins for error were becoming smaller and smaller thanks to the thoroughly pissed off and increasingly desperate tow truck driver, who seemed almost prepared to see if his vehicle would fit through the tempting – but not ever so wide – gap between bus and kerb.
Eventually, a whole 45 seconds after he began his epic crusade, your driver relented, went back to driving legally, and allowed the tow truck past.

But, you know, point made, right? Right.

If there were medals for holding up a law-breaking tow truck in the traffic for almost a minute while slightly breaking the law yourself, your driver would have got one.  Because that’s exactly what he did. But now the bad news, all at Gott 2 Tour tour bus company in Cape Town: I’ve checked, and sadly, there doesn’t seem to be any precedent for awarding medals in this somewhat niche category.

And so it comes down to me to express my congratulations and gratitude in this, an open letter of… er… congratulation and gratitude to all at Gott 2 Tour tour bus company in Cape Town.

I think I can safely speak for all the frustrated motorists on the M5 yesterday evening when I say that I will certainly not forget the actions of your driver.

8 thoughts on “An open letter of congratulation and gratitude to all at Gott 2 Tour tour bus company in Cape Town

  1. I’m confused, and it’s probably my fault for not reading this carefully enough, but was the driver of the white bus doing this on purpose or by mistake? Did he realise that this was a tow truck, or did he not?

  2. Brian Micklethwait > Oh, it was a very deliberate decision to block the tow truck off: simply to make a point that tow trucks don’t have the right to stamp all over the local laws. It just would have helped if he had used his brain and worked out WHY the tow truck was in such a rush. Tosser.

  3. Surely the person that wrote this open letter is a sad and lonely person, nothing better to do with there time. There are far more concerning issues in the world today than to be worried about someone blocking a tow truck driving in the yellow lane. Tow trucks are like vultures and do as they please on the road. I commend the driver at Gott 2 tour for showing the tow truck driver that he can be prevented from driving like a prick. I have come across a number of pricks in my time but the writer of this open letter takes the cake he is a cactus, and for the guy that agreed with him,an even bigger prick. Think for yourself and dont just agree with some picks comments.

  4. Darren (Darren is Darren Gott, by the way) > Well done. It’s only taken you 14 months to get around to dropping a reply on here. And while I’m delighted that you eventually got around to making the effort to air your worthless opinion, I’m disappointed at the quality of your response.
    Does it irk you that this post features higher on a Google search for “Gott 2 Tours” than… er… Gott 2 Tours? Probably.

    I’m glad that you feel able to tell us that you have come across a number of pricks in your time. Cape Town has a very liberal attitude towards those sort of things and that’s to be commended.

    I also take on board your opinion that tow trucks are like vultures, but I’m not sure you’re absolutely correct there. Feathers – that’s my primary sticking point on that one. But imagine if tow trucks were like vultures – then they could have flown to the scene of the accident in question, instead of pointlessly being delayed for slightly less than a minute by some twat driving one of your empty minibus taxis.

    Is Gott 2 Tours still running? There by the grace of god if so. It’s a cutthroat business, ne? Probably best that your drivers don’t break the law by driving in the yellow lane and annoying EVERY-FRIKKEN-BODY ELSE ON THE ROAD. No-one likes reading about that sort of thing when choosing a minibus taxi firm to use in Cape Town.

  5. Brian Mickletwat sorry Mickelthwait, you are such a sorry sole. You actually waited 14 month for a response, unbelievable. Do you have a job, or do you do this for a living, if so i pity you.This is what actually happened. It helps when you know the facts, instead of listen to a comment, sorry a novel made by that prick who is to afraid to mention his name. Here are the facts, my driver was turning off at Berkley because that is the way to my depot, he had crossed the yellow line slightly trying to get to the turn off a little quicker. Guilty as charged, i suppose you have never done that. What a good little boy you are.My driver happened to block a tow truck for a moment. 30 sec 40 sec 45 sec who is counting. That is why the idiot that wrote the letter in the first place should get the golden globe award for being a prick.

  6. I would like to comment on this incident as well.My company have been dealing with Gott 2 Tour for the last 5 years and got to know Darren and his drivers very well.They have a high safety record and have a zero incident record at that.They run a very proffessional service and to try and potray him and his company as anything else is nothing tantemount to slander.This article should be viewed as a melicious vandetta against Gott 2 Tour and nothing else.To say that the truck driver was wrong and then to make a meal of the response of the gott 2 tour driver and show them off as the bad boy or guilty party in this scenario is misleading the truth. To operate a transport bussiness takes a lot of guts and skill of which Darren Gott has plenty of, i challenge any one of you gentleman to show the same courage.I have had diferences with Darren as anyone has in bussiness but he showed fairness and guts with heaps of integrity.What is repulsive to me as the reader is to have the analogy drawn about apartheid,DONT DO THIS ITS VALGOUR to steep so low this shows me its a personal vandetta. All i want to say safety first to you all and abide by the rule of the road and the law.Gott2 tour has done thousands of miles transporting passengers all over south africa.So yes i hope clients read my comment and if anyone want to come see me personally about this matter, i am not a faceless person we can set up a meeting gladly.

    Apologies if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes this is not my mother tounge.Stop think before you run any bussiness down this bussness does not deserve this lashing…..

  7. Darren > Gott in Himmel! Das ist eine spektakuläre Reponse!
    Even after 14 months.

    And thanks for the recommendation on the sole. I’m not a huge fan of fish, but I might give it a go.

    Look, thanks for the explanation of “what actually happened”. I’m struggling to reconcile your version with the one I actually witnessed

      with my own eyes, rather than one you just made up got second-hand from a taxi driver over a year later, but hey, to the uneducated eye, yours actually sounds pretty plausible. Are you Oscar P in disguise?
      Who was counting how long your guy blocked the tow truck driver for? Me. And plenty plenty other motorists also irritated with his pathetic “playing the traffic cop” antics.

      Look, you’ve made your point, albeit rather poorly, so how about we just leave this here and you can get back to your taxis and I can get back to my lovely blog?

      Have a special day. x

  8. Marius > Bless. I bet you were there, weren’t you? I bet you witnessed it all. I bet he didn’t put you up to this one little bit. “Hey, Marius – go leave a comment here, make me look good, hey boytjie.” Was that how it went? What a hero you are. H E R O !
    Yeah – this is a personal vendetta, obviously. Look at all the other vendettery stuff I’ve done.
    It’s just a really, really bad one. Like his driver.

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